


Spring Celebrations for Jack

by keylimepie



Series: Sabriwena [7]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Candy, Domesticity in the Men of Letters Bunker (Supernatural), Easter Egg Hunt, F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Spring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 20:27:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18598813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keylimepie/pseuds/keylimepie
Summary: Jack is curious about some of the ways humans celebrate spring holidays. Dean, Cas, Sam, Gabe, and Rowena all try to give him a taste of what spring holidays mean to them.





	Spring Celebrations for Jack

**Author's Note:**

> It's the fluffy happy Sabriwena and Destiel happy family in the bunker candy-filled fluff that you probably need today. Enjoy, and brush your teeth afterwards.

Sam and Jack were walking through Target one day in early spring when they saw the Easter display. Jack squinted curiously at the shelves of chocolate bunnies, jellybeans, egg dye kits, and countless other items. “That’s a lot of candy,” he remarked. 

“Yeah, people go a little crazy with the candy these days. It was a lot even when I was little, but there’s so much more now.” He made a face at a stack of brightly-colored marshmallow chicks. 

“It looks delicious,” Jack said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen chocolate that was shaped like a rabbit.” 

“Huh. No, I guess not. It’s almost Easter, Jack. It’s, uh, well it’s a long story but this is how people celebrate it. Baskets of candy and gifts.” 

“That sounds nice,” Jack said dreamily. 

They continued through the story on their mission. New flashlights, coffee, dish soap, and bath towels. Nothing very exciting, though they enjoyed the slow stroll through the store, looking at various things. Sam always loved watching Jack see the world through fresh eyes. He kept thinking about the Easter candy display, even after they’d finished and gone home. 

* 

The next day, Gabriel grabbed the newspaper from the pavement in front of the bunker door and went back inside, descending the stairs with a bounce. Dean and Jack were seated at the map table, working on a translation of some dusty old book. Gabriel glanced at it; he could have translated it in about five seconds flat if anyone had asked him, but he supposed it was good practice for the kid. 

He sat down and leaned back, propping his feet up on the next chair. He perched a pair of black-framed glasses on his nose and began thumbing through the newspaper, announcing choice bits of the headlines to the other two. Most of it didn’t get much of a reaction, though Dean sort of perked up when he mentioned the car show planned for the County Fairgrounds next month. But neither of them showed much interest in the grisly murders or the new tax laws or the cake recipe. Still, Gabriel kept reading out loud. “Lebanon’s Thirty-Seventh Annual Easter Egg Hunt. Eeeeush.” He made a face. 

“What, you don’t like little kids runnin’ around trying to get all those candy filled eggs? Is it the competition that bothers you or what?” Dean said. 

“Pfft, no. If it was any other reason, it’d be great. But, Easter?” 

“Well when else would you have an Easter egg hunt, dumbass?” Dean snarked. 

“The point, Dean-O, is that it’s kinda creepy that they’re celebrating… well, to be completely blunt, they’re celebrating my half-brother’s murder. Wouldn’t that creep you out?” 

Dean blinked a few times. “That’s… okay, I guess if you put it that way…” 

Sam wandered into the room. He lifted Gabriel’s feet from the chair, sat down, and then placed them in his lap before stealing a chunk of the newspaper from him. Gabriel looked at him over the top of the glasses. Sam grinned back. Gabriel winked. Dean cleared his throat. 

“I thought that people liked Jesus. Why would they celebrate him dying?” Jack said with a puzzled frown. 

“It’s more that they celebrate the fact that he was willing to go through that for them.” Sam said. 

“Like a thank you?” Jack said. He turned to Gabriel. “Where is Jesus now? Is he okay?” 

“Oho, he’s even harder to pin down than yours truly. Haven’t seen him in centuries.” He shifted uncomfortably. 

“So he’s not just one of Chuck’s personas or whatever?” Dean asked. 

Gabriel sighed. “It’s really very complicated…” 

The bunker door opened with a clang, and Castiel appeared on the top step with a large take-out bag from the Thai place. Dean and Jack put away their translation work, Gabriel tucked the pieces of the newspaper haphazardly together and tossed them onto the other table, and Sam went down the corridor to call Rowena to dinner, and the conversation was forgotten. 

* 

It was late afternoon several days later, and Rowena was in the kitchen, whispering incantations into a bowl of bread dough, when Jack wandered in looking for a snack. He paused and tilted his head curiously. 

“Aunty Ro, what are you doing?” he asked. “Do you make bread by magic?” 

“Not usually, no darling. But this is going to be for my Ostara celebration, so it needs a little extra something.” 

“Oh,” Jack said, continuing to rummage through the snack shelf. Then he turned back toward her. “What is Ostara?” 

“A pagan celebration of the springtime. We pagans like to greet the equinox with joyful celebration of the return of the warmth and growing things and little baby animals and all that. Birdies lay eggs. Bunnies hop around and… do what bunnies do.” 

“I see,” he said. “So it’s kind of like Easter?” 

Rowena’s face clouded over. “Bloody thieving Christians!” she spat out. “No, no, darling, it’s okay, I’m not mad at you. But yes, if you see any similarity it’s because the blasted Christians stole all our traditions.” She pouted. 

“I’m sorry about that,” Jack said kindly. “I’d love to hear about how witches celebrate springtime.” 

Rowena lit up. “Why then, you shall! You can come along with me tomorrow.” 

Castiel chose this moment to come into the kitchen. “Where are you taking Jack?” he asked warily, looking into the bowl of bread dough before squinting at her. 

“Well I’m just going to give him a proper holiday celebration, since you lot have really dropped the ball. Or the egg, as it were.” The raised voices seemed to be attracting attention, and Dean, Sam, and then Gabriel all filed into the kitchen. 

“What do you mean, dropped the ball?” Dean demanded. “Are you saying we’re not taking good care of him?” 

“Oh, unclench, Dean. Nothing of the sort. I’m just saying that you all could have done more to give the boy a nice holiday. Now Jack, darling, later we shall boil and color some wee eggies. Tomorrow, we’ll have a nice egg hunt - shhh, Gabriel, love, we’re not celebrating _that_ we’re celebrating the fertility of the Earth - and perhaps the Bunny himself shall leave you a basket full of candies. And if you choose to come sit on the grass under the sun at the moment of equilibrium with me, and break bread and give thanks to the Earth and all Her energies, that is your choice.” 

“Will we be naked?” Jack asked innocently. 

“What?” exclaimed Sam and Dean at the same time, while Gabriel laughed and Castiel made a distressed noise. Rowena just blinked, dumbfounded. 

“It’s just that… Castiel told me once that pagan celebrations usually happened naked. But he also told me that it was not acceptable to humans to be naked in public, and that we have to blend in with human sensibilities by wearing typical clothing. So I wasn’t sure… how that works.” 

Rowena looked at Castiel with a raised eyebrow. “I only do skyclad when I’m quite sure that I’m alone and that there should be no one else in the area. Unless some invisible Peeping Tom angel is spying on me, I suppose. No, I’ll be wearing a lovely spring frock. You may wear whatever clothing takes your fancy.” 

Dean and Sam both glared at Castiel. Gabriel bit his cheek to keep from laughing out loud, though his mirthful eyes clearly showed that he was enjoying this confrontation immensely. “I didn’t,” Castiel denied hotly. “I wasn’t trying to - I was looking for her for, we- we needed her for a spell, _you_ sent me to look for her!” he told Dean and Sam. “I certainly didn’t get any pleasure from seeing her nude form.” 

“Oh!” Rowena exclaimed indignantly, rounding on Castiel and waving the wooden spoon covered in bread dough menacingly at him. 

Castiel sighed and tilted his head. “Was I supposed to get pleasure from it?” 

“Well I’ve never had any complaints previously!” she snorted. She looked Dean up and down ruefully. “I suppose there’s no accounting for taste.” 

“We should start those eggs boiling, if we’re doing this,” Sam said. He stepped between Rowena and Cas, held her shoulders gently, and steered her toward the fridge. She softened a little when he touched her, and together they put the eggs into the large pot and set it on to boil. 

“Dean, we should go to the store,” Castiel said, placing a hand on his shoulder. He leaned close and whispered in Dean’s ear, “we’ll need to make Jack an Easter basket.” 

Dean swallowed hard. “O-okay,” he said. “Let’s go.” 

While Dean and Cas headed out the door, the rest of them continued preparation for dyeing eggs, under Rowena’s direction. They found an assortment of cups, and mixed various herbs and other substances into an array of natural colors. Gabriel sacrificed the sports section of his newspaper to cover the table. 

“I think we’re just about ready, and Dean and Cas should be back soon,” Sam said, poking the simmering pot of eggs. 

“They’ve been gone quite a while already,” Rowena mused. 

“That’s because they like to stop the car somewhere and engage in sexual intercourse whenever they go out alone together,” Jack said, nodding sagely. “I guess the nudity thing doesn't apply to when you’re in a car?” 

“Oh ew,” Sam said, cringing. 

Gabriel hooted. “You should ask Cas to explain that loophole to you, kid. I’m not touching that with a ten foot pole.” 

Rowena just scooped the cooked eggs into a bowl to cool. “Guess I’m not the only one honoring the magickal nature energies of springtide,” she muttered under her breath. 

When Dean and Cas finally showed back up, slightly mussed up and looking rather satisfied, everyone was working on their first round of eggs. Sam was showing Jack how to write on the warm egg with a wax crayon before dipping it in the dye bath, and how to use the scooper to avoid staining his fingers. Sam glanced across the table to Dean with a little smile. “Remember when you taught me how to do this?” 

“Yep,” Dean said. “You were about four, I think, the first time we tried it. Dad had left us in that place in, uh, Indiana I think? And I saw that dye kit with the tablets and everything in the grocery store and figured it’d be fun for you.” Dean didn’t mention how he’d had to stuff both the dye kit and the dozen of eggs into his jacket and make it out of the store undetected. “You still made a mess though. I scrubbed your hands in the bathtub that night for like half an hour-” 

“-you scrubbed half the skin off!” Sam said. 

“You used to give wee babby Sam baths?” Rowena said, her lips twitching in a smile. “Oh, what a picture that must’ve been!” 

“Yeah, and he hated baths,” Dean said. “And trying to wash his hair? Pfft.” 

“Well good thing I can handle it myself now,” Sam said, his lips pursed tightly in annoyance. But then his face shifted to the soft light of nostalgia again. “Anyway, I couldn’t have been too bad. The Easter Bunny left me a basket full of candy that night.” He exchanged a look with Dean, a belated thank you for the no doubt stolen basket of goodies so many years ago. 

“Yeah, you were a pretty good kid. Let me have the ears.” Dean turned to Jack. “Chocolate bunny ears are a delicacy.” 

“No, it’s definitely the feet,” Sam said with conviction. “Always start with the feet.” 

Gabriel looked at Sam. “That’s funny, I thought you’d be all about eating the-” 

“It’s all the same chocolate!” Cas exclaimed loudly. “The entire rabbit is the same chocolate, it doesn’t matter.” He glared at Gabriel, then shifted his eyes sideways to Jack. 

They continued decorating eggs until a brilliant assortment of them was laid out drying on the table. Rowena shaped her bread dough and placed it carefully in the oven, whispering another incantation as she sent it to bake. 

“Now what do we do?” Jack asked eagerly, examining all the decorated eggs. 

“Well, while you’re sleeping tonight, the Easter Bunny hides the eggs and you have to hunt for them,” Dean said. 

“A rabbit is going to hide those?” Jack said. “Where is the rabbit? I want to pet the rabbit. Rabbits are soft.” 

“It’s not r-” Gabriel began, but Sam stomped hard on his foot while Rowena jabbed him violently in the side with her fingers and Castiel glared across the table with an even more murderous look. 

“It’s just one of those mysterious things, darling,” Rowena said airily. “You may not see the rabbit or pet the rabbit. He’s shy.” 

“If you peek you don’t get any chocolate,” Dean added. 

“I see,” Jack said, although he sounded like he did not see. 

“And tomorrow afternoon you may join me in my ritual, if you wish. We’ll go out in the woods near the duck pond.” 

“A spell?” Castiel asked with a frown. 

“No, no spell. Nothing to worry your fuddy-duddy feathers about,” she said. “It’s a way to thank the divine Goddess for blessing us with another springtide.” 

“So more Wicca than witchcraft,” Dean said. “Harmless hippie crap.” 

Rowena glared at him and said nothing. 

“I would like to see what it is all about,” Jack said. He looked nervously around the room. Castiel and Dean were looking at each other, holding one of those silent conversations. 

“I suppose it can’t hurt,” Cas said at last. 

They made an easy dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, with salad and garlic bread. Later, after Jack finally declared that he was tired and would turn in for the night, the other five scattered around the main rooms of the bunker, hiding eggs everywhere they could think of. Castiel went to the trunk of the Impala and produced a large plastic basket. It was green and yellow, with a multicolored bow tied on the handle, and filled with iridescent plastic grass. Inside the basket was a huge assortment of candy - chocolate eggs, jellybeans, marshmallow chicks, every sort of candy bar imaginable, particularly the nougaty ones, and atop it all, a giant chocolate bunny. Gabriel whimpered. 

“There’s spare candy in a bag in the trunk,” Cas said kindly. “Knock yourself out.” 

“He could literally snap up anything he wanted,” Dean muttered, rolling his eyes as Gabriel dashed toward the garage. “He better not eat all the peanut butter ones.” 

* 

The next morning, Sam woke up in his favorite spot; nestled between Rowena, who was the little spoon against his front, a cloud of red hair tucked under his chin, and Gabriel, who was lying diagonally behind him, one leg thrown over his, and his head hanging off the bed on the other side. Of course, Gabriel wasn’t actually asleep, he was eating a handful of Twizzlers, reading trashy novels on his phone, and rubbing Rowena’s calf with his big toe. There was an excited tapping at the bedroom door, and Sam realized that that was actually what had woken him up. Reluctantly he dislodged himself from Rowena and her silky pajamas. 

“I think Jack wants to hunt his eggs,” Gabriel said. 

Groggily, they pulled on robes and slippers and joined the bouncy little nephilim in the hallway. Dean and Cas stood nearby, similarly tired and in sleep attire. 

“I got a basket! Guys! Guys! There’s a basket with my name! You should see what’s in it!” he shouted. “Can I eat it? Can I have some now? Can I?” 

“For breakfast?” Sam said. 

“Oh, psssht. It’s a special day,” Rowena said, patting Sam’s arm placatingly. 

“One piece!” Sam sighed, following Jack down the hallway. Jack was already picking through the contents of the basket and laying them out on the table when they all gathered. 

“I’ll make coffee,” Castiel offered. 

“You’re an angel,” Dean said around a huge yawn. 

“Um. Yes?” Cas said in confusion. He shook his head and continued toward the kitchen. 

Jack finally selected a raspberry creme filled chocolate egg as his one piece, and bit into it. As he chewed, he happened to spot a pink-dyed egg sitting on the bookshelf nearby. “Eggs!” he exclaimed. “The rabbit hid the eggs!” 

Dean picked up a plastic grocery bag from nearby and handed it to him. “Guess you’d better hunt them.” 

Jack quickly grabbed the pink egg and put it in the bag, then began exploring all the other shelves, in corners, and beneath furniture for the rest of the dyed eggs. Cas came in with mugs of coffee for Dean and Sam, and a tea for Rowena. They all sat down and watched Jack bound around, searching out all the eggs. Every once in a while, Gabriel would move his hand just a twitch and an egg would start glowing somewhere Jack hadn’t thought to look. When they were satisfied that all the eggs had been found, Dean took the bag to the kitchen, muttering something about devilled eggs for breakfast. 

Later that afternoon, Rowena emerged, laden with large baskets, dressed in a sleeveless, full-skirted dress printed with tiny purple hyacinths and yellow daffodils, and a large bright yellow straw hat bedecked with silk flowers. Her purple high-heeled sandals seemed utterly inappropriate for walking in the woods, but they matched the hyacinths in her dress perfectly. 

“Come along, Jack,” she said. “I have to get all of this set up and ready to begin by 4:28 precisely.” Her skirt swished as she marched up the bunker stairs. Gabriel blew her a kiss and Sam gave her a soft smile as she made her exit. 

In the little clearing in the woods, she spread out a thick quilt. “You may sit there while I prepare the altar - oh don’t look so worried, it’s no that kind of altar. You’ll see.” 

She pulled a little folding table from one basket and set it up. A pale green cloth was spread over it, and she put a candle holder, an incense burner, a little bowl of water, and another bowl into which she dropped a handful of dirt. 

Jack sat patiently while she put these things together, and placed the loaf of bread and a goblet of wine on the front of the table. Then she began the ritual. 

It was really more of a prayer than a ritual. Rowena addressed the Great Mother Goddess, giving thanks for the fruitfulness that she’d already enjoyed in her life, and begging for Her blessing in the future. She spoke of the growing flowers and budding trees, the baby robins in the tree above them, the soft downy yellow ducklings in the pond, and the little bees buzzing in and out of Castiel’s hives, making honey from the spring flowers. Rowena broke the loaf of bread and ate a piece, as well as handing one to Jack, before placing the rest of the loaf under the tree as an offering. Same with the glass of wine. She sat quietly and contemplated the tiny curl of smoke coming from the incense stick before moving to close the ritual and put things away. Jack helped her pack things carefully into the baskets. 

“Well what did you think?” she asked as they walked back down the path. She was barefoot now, her shoes in one hand, the basket in the other. Jack smiled and nodded. 

“It was very nice. I think that your Goddess will probably like it very much and will give you the baby that you’re asking for.” 

Rowena dropped the basket and her shoes to the ground. “Wh-what?” she said. “Are you mad? I never- I didn’t- I didn’t ask for a _baby_!” She laughed nervously. 

“But you were talking about being fruitful. That’s what Grandfather said in the Bible when he told people to make babies. And then you talked about all the baby birds. And the bees, which I know have something to do with sex although I don’t know what.” Jack shrugged. “If I was this Goddess and I heard all this I’d think that you were asking for a baby.” 

“Bollocks,” Rowena said weakly. She picked up her shoes and kept walking, as if trying to run away from the thought, and Jack grabbed the other basket and followed her with baskets looped over each arm. 

“You should probably have Sam make the baby,” Jack suggested. “I would love a nephilim cousin, but, um. I like you, Aunty Ro, and I don’t want you to die.” When Rowena didn’t respond, he continued talking. “Hopefully it won’t have as big of a head as Sam, though. I think that would be… uncomfortable.” 

“Jack! Jack, darling, please… can we just… not talk about this. Any of this. Ever again. With anyone.” Rowena rubbed her temple, very much concerned that she had inadvertently prayed for a baby during a fertility ritual. 

Back at the bunker, Dean was making a ham dinner. Cas and Gabe were sitting at the chess board, Gabriel looking smug and Cas looking frustrated. Sam was sitting at the table near Jack’s basket of candy with his iPad balanced in his hands. He swallowed quickly when they walked in the room. There was a hint of pink sugar crystals in the corners of his mouth. “How’d it go?” he asked, looking at Rowena and then Jack. 

“Fine. Everything went fine,” Rowena said airily. He squinted suspiciously at her; he knew her well enough to see that she was concealing some kind of nervousness, but made a note to ask her about it later. Then he realized that they were still looking into each other’s eyes and they had just done that whole silent conversation thing just like Dean and Cas, and he added a reassuring look in there. Whatever it was, they’d figure it out. 

“I liked it,” Jack said. “It was nice to learn something about pagans.” 

“Yeah,” Sam chuckled. “Well your Uncle Gabe can tell you a lot more. At least, a few of his stories should be appropriate and mostly factual.” 

“Sam, you wound me,” Gabriel called from his perch in the chess nook. 

“Hey, guys? Wanna set the table and help me carry stuff in and all that crap? Grub’s done.” Dean said, peeking around the corner of the hallway, clad in an apron. 

As they sat down to eat, Rowena nudged Dean’s shoulder. “A proper family holiday meal. You’ve outdone yourself, Dean.” He looked at her suspiciously. “I mean it. This is lovely.” She flashed him a smile, and he grinned back, basking in the praise. 

“Thanks, Ro.” They all passed the dishes of food around, and Gabriel produced a bottle of chilled champagne from somewhere. Tomorrow there might be another hunt, another crisis, but for this moment, they feasted and laughed and had a nice celebration. 


End file.
